There’s plenty of reason to fear hurricanes. The tropical cyclones typically kill nearly 50 people in the United States each year, and five worst ones over the past decade cumulatively caused $250 billion in property damage. But for all of their scary destructiveness, hurricanes have a surprising upside when it comes to climate change. A study recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences reveals that increased photosynthesis and growth in forests, which is made possible by hurricanes in the southeastern United States, enables those wooded areas to capture and store gigantic amounts of carbon. The quantity amounts to hundreds of times the carbon emitted each year by the nation’s cars and trucks.
http://www.seeker.com/do-hurricanes-have-an-environmental-upside-1838568242.html
